


Alive in Death Valley

by Big_Boss



Category: Free!
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Gen, M/M, Survival Horror, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-01-10 14:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Big_Boss/pseuds/Big_Boss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A virus had swept the globe into madness, and Makoto finds himself in a world where you die either by eating a bullet or get eaten by zombies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Outbreak

Makoto had forgotten what he had for lunch earlier that day. But now that he was staring at it, on the cemented floor, mixed with bile and goo and dirt and several unmentionable things, the haunting memory of his lunch came back to him.

Sundown had settled across the city, smearing the sky with hues of orange and purple. Makoto would’ve loved to watch the regal scenery if it weren’t for his churning stomach and the decaying body he had recently bashed with a bat. This really wasn’t very good for his weak heart. He woke up late that day to get ready for school and ate last night’s leftovers for breakfast and lunch. Makoto wasn’t really one to skip class, but he opted not to attend his morning classes. The next thing he knew, the world looked like it was plucked straight out of a video game.

It was around three when he discovered that his dormitory was overrun with dead growling cannibals.

Heart beating tremendously too fast, Makoto wasn’t certain how long he had been hiding in his dormitory room. He sat on the floor, back against his locked door, shaking hands holding a baseball bat. He didn’t know which was weirder; him owning a baseball bat or the drooling deformed cannibals just outside his door. He could hear them moaning and coughing mindlessly, dragging their malformed feet across the ground.

The first thing he thought of was his family. Thinking about them and wondering whether or not the outbreak had already reached Iwatobi made him want to cry. Just imagining his lovely little siblings get eaten and his parents dying was something he couldn’t simply bear. It hurt when he felt his stomach up in knots. Makoto sat for a moment and let himself cry. It really was too much to handle. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

“You can do this,” he whispered to himself, grasping the bat tighter.

Makoto would’ve been satisfied to stay in the dormitory until the flesh-eating creatures outside his door would go away. He had plenty of food and water to last him for a week, and he was on the third floor, so his room would be unlikely to be subjugated.

But then he thought of Haruka. He was still in the university. Makoto’s breath hitched when his phone rang, recognizing the tone instantly. He had to hurry to shut it up, afraid the monsters outside would hear. It was still unknown to him whether they had super hearing, super eyesight or super whatever, but Makoto wanted to be as careful as possible.

Just in synced with his thoughts, Haruka was the one calling.

Makoto answered in no time. “Haru! Haru, where are you?! Are you alright? Tell me where you are!” He couldn’t help the urgency in his voice. Makoto heard a relieved sigh on the other line.

“…Calm down, I’m not hurt.”

Hearing his voice was enough to make Makoto cry. “Haru…” he muttered, pushing the back of his hand against his eyes in frustrated relief. He said in the midst of his quiet sobs, “Oh, god. You’re alive. I was so scared… I—!”

The sound of banging and inhuman groans filled his ears. Haruka must’ve heard it too. “Makoto? Makoto! What was that?! Are you okay?!”

Makoto had never heard Haruka so worried before. Another loud banging and growling was heard. He jumped away from the door before turning around and checking whether the wooden frame could last, fear carved on his face before realizing that the flesh-eaters knew he was there. The hand holding his phone shook violently. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t even hear Haruka’s worried shouts on the other end.

The pounding on his door kept him from focusing. “I-I’m locked up in the dorms. I… I can’t get out. I—Haru, I’m…” Makoto didn’t move and backed away from the door slowly, his eyes never leaving the only possible exit.

In a matter of seconds, the door detached from its hinges and Makoto had to drop the phone. Tears were blurring his eyes but he could see it—the mutilated figure of an undead man, hurling itself to attack him.

“Stay away!” He shouted, despite knowing it was no use against the undead. His hands shook even more.

He had to kill it. There wasn’t any other choice. But Makoto was bigger and stronger and he knew that. Swiftly but hesitantly, he raised the baseball bat above his head and smashed the end into the creature’s head, breaking its skull apart as thick dark blood and small tissues of flesh splattered on his arms and face.

Haruka was still on the other line, hearing every thud and clatter. “Makoto!” he kept saying, but Makoto couldn’t move an inch afterwards, too busy catching his breath and mourning for the man he killed.

He killed someone.

He killed a _man_.

Unsteady green eyes slowly traveled down, greeted by the morbid sight of a bashed head, brain matter oozing out, all splattered sloppily on his room floor. He felt something going up to his gullet until he felt the sudden urge to puke. Nothing came out. His arms weakened. Dropping both things in his grasp, Makoto fell to the floor and gasped for air. His breaths came out in choked sobs and wheezes before he started to feel nausea.

There was blood on his hands and face. He quickly wiped the blood off his face along with his tears. Catching his breath, he held the phone against his ear again.

“…Haru, where… are you?” Makoto asked weakly before letting out a series of coughs. He sensed his heart shrinking. He chose to avoid looking at the headless body next to him.

“What was that?! Are you okay?”

Makoto swallowed, wiping the tears that kept coming. “I’m… I’m fine. I killed... _it_.” It was difficult for him to refer to the monster as something inhuman. His voice and hands couldn’t stop shaking.

Sensing Makoto was alright after that ordeal, Haruka said, “I—I’m locked up too. As in, _locked_ up. Someone trapped me here. I’m somewhere in school. I… I don’t know where I am, I can’t really see anything.” He spoke in a soft voice, like he was hiding from something. “I woke up in this dark room. There was this… this horde of—”

“Haru?” The phone was cut off and Makoto panicked, shouting repeatedly in horror, “Haru! Hey! Can you hear me?! Haru!”

Staring at his phone in horror, he then pressed his hands against his blood-stained face, trying to figure out what to do. His door was completely wrecked. There wasn’t really any other option but to get out of the building. He needed to save Haruka. With his wobbly knees and bloodied torso, he stood up. Though he knew his appetite won’t be coming back for a while, he took the canned beans and chowder from his cupboards, the bottled waters from his fridge, and chucked them all into a backpack.

He took a deep breath before grabbing the bloody bat from the floor.

Slowly he reached the hallway, dark and deserted, with nothing but debris and human tissue on the floors. There weren’t any screams from people, so Makoto assumed they were already dead, or turned into the _un_ dead. He mourned for them quietly as he made his way down.

It was eerily quiet. Makoto knew silence wasn’t really a good thing.

Then something grabbed his ankle.

“Ungh!” Makoto groaned as he fell on the floor with a loud thud. He whipped his upper body around and saw a moving corpse clutching strongly at his foot, working to drag Makoto closer. Makoto slammed the other end of the bat to its open mouth before it could bite him, as saliva and blood spewed from its jaws.

The hissing growls of hunger stopped. And Makoto could feel his heart bursting out of his chest. He hadn’t been able to breathe normally for the last hour and he could hardly stand up again. He had to stop and think about Haruka. Because he needed to save Haruka. And he has to survive in order to do that. Makoto was scared—the scariest he had ever been in his whole life. He was alone and the world was ending before his eyes, but the thought of Haruka being alone was even scarier.

The doors to the other rooms were mostly destroyed and he ran as fast as he could to get out of the building, evading the undead who were unable to detect him.

Outside, Tokyo still existed, and it smelled awful—a rotting, toxic-kind of stench. He could see skyscrapers and smoke in the distance. The neighborhood he lived in wasn’t crowded so he could still sigh in relief. But he knew as soon as would arrive downtown, it would be much worse than hell.

Makoto walked quietly. The roads were blocked with deserted cars and dead bodies hanging from broken windows. Driving would cause too much attention, so he scratched that option out. Turning to the next corner, another infected corpse almost got him, but Makoto acted quickly enough to bash the top of its head off. The repugnant smell of death, the sight of a head falling off from the corpse’s neck, and the realization that he had just killed _three_ people finally dawned on him. He felt his diaphragm contract. That was when Makoto could no longer hold the bile creeping up his throat, and threw up then and there.

There goes his lunch.

With his ragged breaths, Makoto closed his eyes and tried to regain his composure. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, both from the smell and his recent vomiting. His noises had probably attracted the infected as he saw others walking towards him in less than ten feet away. With one last glance to the walking bodies, Makoto ran straight to an abandoned restaurant and stepped inside.

There weren’t any sounds of moaning or flesh being ripped, causing Makoto to sigh in relief. If he could get to the back door, he would end up on the road towards his school. He could only hear his ragged breath and footsteps, the sound somehow loud in the unnerving silence of the empty restaurant. He headed behind the counters and opened the door to kitchen, causing a drawn-out creaking sound.

The machines inside the kitchen left a soft whirring sound. Makoto’s heart thumped at full speed, syncing with the flickering of the broken fluorescent lights. The room darkened and lighted up alternately, the light going on and off as Makoto walked further. His green eyes saw a glimpse of the back door; the exit. As he fast-walked to the end of the room, he stopped suddenly. Right in front of him was a man, crouching over a body.

“No…” he gasped. There was another one. He couldn’t bear having to kill these things even though they were now mindless cannibals. Aside from that, he couldn’t bear the very sight of them. Guilt overwhelmed him. They were humans once. They had a family, a house, a job, and they had feelings. But now that this ‘once-human’ was eating the intestines of a waitress, Makoto knew he had to do something.

Then a rush of fear flooded him. He couldn’t help it. His remorse disappeared when the flesh-eating man stood up and creepily turned his head to him. Its misty eyes and uneven jaw looked straight at Makoto, who was frozen in horror.

“Don’t come any closer,” Makoto pleaded between ragged breaths. The man took another step forward, its head tilting and slobbering mouth juddering in hunger. Makoto was about to hit it with his bat when the room suddenly turned pitch black.

A loud hissing growl. He felt the creature charged at him. Makoto shouted a short cry of surprise as he tried his best not to get bitten. Managing to push it away with brute strength, he swung his bat aimlessly, hoping it would hit the creature somehow.

And it did, thank god. The soulless grunting had stopped and he heard a body flop to the floor. The light flickered bright again and his eyes confirmed that the dead man was, indeed, _dead_. Two corpses now laid in a pool of blood. Makoto decided to head out quickly before he would throw up again.

It was dark when he got out of the restaurant. The sun had completely set, and he hoped the streetlamps and lights coming from the buildings wouldn’t fail. The university wasn’t that far off, but distance wasn’t really the problem. Makoto lived in the eastern outskirts of the city, so it wasn’t as populated as downtown Tokyo. He made his way through the streets carefully and quietly. Stealth was the only sane choice. It was impossible to fight the infected by himself, especially since he only had a metal bat as a weapon—which was now pitifully bent almost to an L-shape. It surprised Makoto that it took four hard skulls for it to actually bend.

He needed to get a better weapon, or else he wouldn’t be able to survive the night.

So far, Makoto had been efficient in staying undetected. From the looks of it, the walking corpses couldn’t see, and would rather react on noise and smell. It was helpful that Makoto’s upper body was covered in human entrails and blood from his previous kills. He’d like to avoid confrontation at all costs; mainly because it was both pitiful and horrifying at the same time. Eyeballs hanging from their sockets and dismembered limbs weren’t really a pleasant sight. Makoto had thrown up too many times on random occasions, so he chose not to look at them directly. On the other hand, he still mourned for the undead. They _were_ people at one point. He couldn’t get that detail out of his head.

The hardware store up ahead looked like a decent place to rest and to get some weapons. Looking around for other potential hideouts, and discovering nothing better than the hardware store, Makoto ran straight to it.

Except the entrance was blocked by an inoperable car. He sighed out loud. Nothing was ever easy. To the right of the shop was a dark alley. He _could_ get into the store through the back door. Makoto stopped in front of it and hesitated.

“Oh, come on…” Makoto murmured to himself. He hated the fact that he could bash human skulls and not venture into a creepy alleyway. He was still a big ‘ol wimp even after encountering the living dead.

He moved forward in a slow pace, bat raised, ready for swinging. He breathed in deep inhales until he saw the door. Sighing in relief, he was about to go inside when he felt something in his ankles again.

“Wha—?!” Makoto yelled in surprise and instinctively thumped his foot on the crawling corpse. He had stepped on its remaining arm. Then it began to move again, using its torso to inch towards him. From afar, he could see others approaching. He made too much noise. It was a good time to go inside except—

The door was locked.

Makoto stared at the knob in horror. The infected were approaching fast. He glanced left and right and saw that he was cornered. Three on the left, two on the right. His bat could only endure one blow. Panicking, he rattled the doorknob, pushed his shoulders to force it open, and even banged on it, hoping that someone—a real _person—_ was inside.

“Is anyone in there! Let me in! _Please_!”

The banging made a lot of noise. But he still took the risk.

“Anyone! Open the door!”

The door flew open too fast that he stumbled roughly inside. He groaned in pain along with the impact as the door closed instantly after.

“Thank you, I thought I—”

He was about to look up until he saw a gun pointed at his face. The next thing he knew, the stranger was yelling at him.

“What the hell, man?! You just attracted all those fucking bastards in here with all that knocking, you bloody fucking genius!”

That voice! Makoto recognized it so well, he could almost cry, despite the harsh words thrown at him.

“Rin!”

The room was dark, but he was so sure it was Rin. A flashlight was soon lit up. Makoto had to cover his eyes in reflex at the sudden brightness.

“M-Makoto?”

The light confirmed that it _was_ really Rin. Before Makoto could stand up straight, he felt Rin wrap his arms around him, still dangerously holding a handgun.

“Holy _shit_ , I thought you were dead…!” Rin cried in relief, rubbing his face against Makoto’s shoulder. The taller man could feel his shirt getting soaked. “Holy _shit_ , holy _shit_ …” He murmured again and again.

For someone who cussed and shouted at him as soon as he got it, Rin cried like a girl who got reunited from her mother. And Makoto could relate. He had been seeing only the dead, and the fact that he met with Rin—still alive and intact and with no eyeballs dangling from his sockets, got him into tears as well.

“I’m so glad you’re safe!” And _alive_. He felt so relieved he could barely contain his happiness. Makoto reciprocated Rin’s kind actions and hugged back, even more tightly.

A loud thud from the door behind them caused them to pull away. They shared the same look of surprise. The flesh-eaters were close and were forcing their way inside, singing a chorus of coughing moans and lingering gasps.

Rin’s smile faded away as soon as he saw it was only Makoto. “Haru? Where is he? Why isn’t he with you?”

The panic in his voice reinforced the guilt welling up inside him. Rin had always thought it was a bad omen whenever Haruka wasn’t with him. Makoto looked down in shame. “I… He’s not…”

The other man’s eyes widened in horror and disbelief. “D-Don’t tell me…”

“He’s alive! Just… He called me but he got cut off, I… I don’t know,” Makoto said miserably, trying to make up the right words. He shook his head, trying to get rid of negative thoughts. It was Haruka. Makoto knew he had a high survival rate. Nevertheless, he was still in danger. “I’m coming to get him. He’s locked up in school.”

Rin exhaled loudly, sighing in relief once more. “I knew that guy won’t get killed off that easily,” he said, laughing a bit. He opened the lights and Makoto could finally see the surroundings.

“Does that mean I’m someone who gets killed easily?”

Rin averted his gaze and pursed his lips. “Well, to be honest, uh, yeah, you are.” He raised his hands in apology. “Don’t get me wrong! It’s just… you get pretty scared easily and…” Rin stopped and just scratched his head, which was covered by a baseball cap.

“I threw up about seven times on the way here and thought about killing myself so I really can’t argue with you there,” Makoto managed to joke, though it was kind of sad that he was saying the truth.

“I only puked once, if you could call that an achievement.” He heard Rin scoff and laugh. “Anyway, sorry I shouted at you,” he said regretfully. Rin always had a soft side for Makoto. It just wasn’t right to mistreat him.

It has been a while since Makoto smiled. “It’s fine. I _was_ pretty noisy back there.” He dusted off the dirt on his hands before letting out a breath.

“Let’s get inside,” Rin said, ushering Makoto into another door. He looked back from where he came from and saw that the door looked durable enough, metal bars supporting the main frame. It was a shop after all, so it must’ve had a good security system.

They soon got into some kind of office. Makoto assumed it was the office of the hardware store’s manager or owner. “Are there any…” Makoto trailed off, giving Rin a knowing look. The other didn’t seem to get it. “You know, those _things_ here?”

“Infected?”

“You call it that?”

Rin plopped down on the soft brown desk chair, making it spin as he landed on it. “The news call it that.” He opened the television via remote, but there was nothing but static. “There _were_ news earlier. Stations were probably overrun by now.” He turned it off again before looking at Makoto. “It’s sorta cliché if you ask me. Evil corporations, biological warfare, secret experiments gone wrong… It’s like a movie. I could hardly believe it.”

“I had no idea… what happened. All of a sudden my dorm was filled with these… _infected_. I didn’t know how to get out until they broke my door.”

“It traveled that fast, huh?” Rin clicked his tongue. “It’s a virus transmitted via bite. I think that’s obvious enough. A scratch can get you infected too. I’m not sure, the news said not every single infected can transmit the virus. They have distinctive eyes. Clouded eyes are the ones that can turn you.”

Makoto stiffened. The one from the restaurant had clouded eyes. If he had been unable to shove it off, he might’ve been a goner by now. He felt chills down his spine. “Have you seen one like that?”

“I got to kill some when I was clearing this place up. There’s still some outside, but not worth killing.”

Makoto couldn’t help to be amazed. Rin killed every infected in the store? Judging from all the blood in his clothes and the melee weapons hanging from his back and buckles, he must’ve killed a _lot_. He really wished he could be just as fearless as him.

“Where did you get that gun?” Makoto asked, curious. He was certain he wouldn’t be able to handle using a gun. Rin seemed like the type to use something like it, though.

“Oh, this?” Rin stared at the pistol in his hand. “There was a dead police officer in here, thought it would be a nice loot.”

“Have you used it?”

“The thing is… I—can’t. It’s harder than I thought.” Rin looked at it one more time, scrutinizing the symbol of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department embedded on the holster. “Look, we’re gonna need this if we’re going to get Haru. I know what you’re thinking, alright? Let me handle the killing. What’s your plan?”

“I… don’t have one.”

Rin closed his eyes in disappointment and sighed. “Well, we’re going to have to start by getting you something better than _that._ ”

Makoto noticed Rin’s gaze on his curved baseball bat. “Yeah, that would be great.”

“Let’s head down to the store, then.”

Makoto had to look away from several corpses before arriving at the actual hardware store. Just how many of these infected had Rin killed? He had lost count. There was even a dead body of a young boy, about the age of six, next to a corpse of what looked like his dad. He wondered if Rin was the one who finished them off.

“Why a hardware store?” he asked as they walked through a dim aisle of wrenches and other carpentry supplies. The whole area only had a few lights on, so even though it was dark, Makoto could still see clearly, even without his graded glasses.

Rin grabbed a huge monkey wrench, swinging it a few times to test its speed. “Was about to try the supermarket, but the alarms went off and suddenly there were hordes of them rushing inside. They’re sensitive to noise apparently.”

On one aisle, there were a few sports equipment available. Rin got hold from the sports aisle and threw a heavy polypropylene bat towards Makoto, who barely caught it.

“It’s more durable than what you’re holding. You’re strong as hell, the light weight of the bat’s an advantage for people with great upper body strength.”

Makoto just nodded and walked behind Rin, who kept stealing things from the store and stuffing them inside Makoto’s backpack and his own. Batteries, flashlights, a bundle of rope, a portable water purification device that cost more than ten-thousand yen…

“Rin, do we really need to steal all these?”

The said boy turned to him to simply raise one eyebrow. “Oh, sorry, let me just get some cash and pay by the counter— _yes_ , we have to _steal_ these things, Makoto! The world’s ending, remember?”

“Then at least get a can opener or something.”

“…A can opener,” Rin repeated flatly.

“I have canned beans in my bag and I won’t be able to open them.”

Narrowing his eyes, Rin stared back unamused. “We can open it with a knife.”

“I’ve tried that before and it was _messy_.”

“I _don’t_ ca—alright, fine, _fine,_ damn it. We’ll get your stupid can opener.” Rin rubbed his hands on his face before turning to another lane of tools—

—when a horrible-smelling thing lunged out from the other aisle. Both Rin and Makoto screamed in surprise. The dead creature grasped strongly at Rin’s arms with its disfigured hands as it struggled to get a bite off him.

“Goddamn it!” Rin yelled as he kicked the hungry being off of him. It was a good time to test that monkey wrench he had found. In one solid strike, he brought the heavy red tool across the infected’s face, severing half of its head, blood spurting everywhere.

Makoto only watched in fright as the corpse dropped on the floor.

“Don’t you feel… bad?” Makoto asked with hesitation, green eyes sullen in repentance. Again, he avoided looking at the dead body. He squinted his eyes so he wouldn’t be able to see it clearly. The smell of slaughter was enough to make him vomit. “They were people once.”

“ _Once_ ,” Rin repeated sternly, blood-stained sweat trickling down his face. “Note the _once,_ Makoto. They aren’t going to turn back. People don’t _eat_ other people! I just saw a father eat his own son, _alive._ And I couldn’t do _anything_. You’re right, they were human _once._ But they aren’t now.”

Makoto was taken aback. He was right. They weren’t human anymore. The grip on his bat tightened and he finally looked straight at the dead body, with its severed head and maggot-infested wounds. He felt like he needed to see the corpse that Rin had killed, to see that they were no longer human. They were flesh-eating beasts, deceitfully hungry and out of their minds. He moved one step closer to the body. Rin seemed to have an idea what he was doing. Makoto’s green eyes blinked fast as he observed the headless man, human tissue and skin speckled on the once pristine floors. He needed to drill into his brain that they just weren’t human anymore. He had to stop himself from mourning every time he had to kill one of them.

“Sorry,” Rin apologized again, dropping his tense shoulders, watching Makoto stare dreadfully at the corpse. “If you want to survive—to _meet Haru_ , you’re going to have to kill these sons-of-bitches.”

“I know,” Makoto said softly, switching his gaze down on his new baseball bat. He was going to cry again. Things might’ve been easier if Haruka was with him. “This is just… too hard for me to take in.”

Rin suddenly felt bad. “It was a lie that I didn’t feel bad on my first kill. I was in my condo, had to kill my neighbor. He was an old man, so he was slow. It took me quite some time to… put him down with a cricket bat.”

The tall man holding the bat couldn’t find the words to say. So Rin still felt some slight remorse. He was afraid he was becoming someone coldhearted. Rin breathed in deep before letting out another sigh.

“Let’s get you that can opener.”

For a short moment, neither of them spoke. Rin had found a can opener, and was now searching for other tools that might be helpful in one way or another. They had a bat, a wrench, an crowbar, and a pistol with ten rounds—against an entire city of the undead.

The unnerving silence was soon broken by the ringing of Makoto’s phone. There was only one person who would call him. He answered it immediately.

“Haru? Hey! Are you okay?!”

There wasn’t a reply, just the usual noise due to bad signal.

“Is that Haru? What’s happening?” Rin asked with worry.

Another static noise then—

“ _Mako—get me out—here_!”

“H-Haru? Haru!? I’m coming to get you! I’m—” Makoto’s words were lost in the static noise that came after. The line was cut off and Makoto felt like having a panic attack, his hands seemingly numbing and his eyes blurring.

He needed to get Haruka fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, inspired by my video games; most notably Rust, Resident Evil, DayZ, and L4D2 (hence the ‘infected’). So, does anyone play DayZ? Because in that game, _canned beans = your fucking life_. And yes ya’ll need a can opener to actually open the damn things. The average survival time for most players in DayZ is probably around 30 minutes or so. And if you’re a girl player, make it 10 minutes. They take your clothes off and force feed you rotten kiwi and inject you with soda.
> 
> Anyways, this takes place in canon time. This is in the real Free! universe. They’re all in college. I wrote in Rin early because it’s hard writing a zombie apocalypse without someone saying ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ all the time.
> 
> I’ve always wanted to write a zombie fic I’m crying rn.
> 
> initially for the MakoHaru Festival thingy "Locked Up"  
> tumblr post [here](http://makoharufestival.tumblr.com/post/74938102073/challenge-locked-up-user-dahliadenoire-rating)


	2. Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Makoto head to the university. Instead of the streets, they made their way to the city by combing through buildings and alleys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from [Death Valley by Fall Out Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3mHhCc1Jg)

It was fairly obvious that Tokyo was dead, perhaps with the exception of the mindless infected carriers roaming around the streets, searching for a meal to satisfy their insatiable hunger. It didn’t quite make sense to Makoto; how they would bite as their initial attack. He doubted they even felt hunger. They simply just wanted to eat people.

The university was still a long way ahead, and Rin already deemed going through downtown Tokyo as suicide. Rin came from downtown, so he knew there were hundreds of infected in the streets, crowding up the roads as if there was an uprising of the undead. Rin had searched for survivors after escaping from his condo unit and luckily found a dozen of them. He even helped them barricade a warehouse to turn into a safe room, like a fallout of some sort. But Rin decided to head out of the central city where he discovered buses and vans, lead by the government, heading to the north, and saw it as an opportunity to go back to Iwatobi and see if his family was okay.

Of course, that didn’t turn out well. Nothing ever turned out well. The bus station was overrun when he got there and he had to run the hell away from the place when a horde of the infected chased him. It became a game of scurrying through alleys and combing in and out of buildings until he found refuge in a hardware store.

“We’re going to circle downtown by going northeast. Main roads are fucked up and we’re gonna avoid those,” Rin explained, pointing at a badly drawn map on a whiteboard.

They were back in the hardware store’s office. Makoto’s nausea had somehow left for the time being as he stood across Rin.

“So that means going through alleys as much as possible.” Makoto observed Rin’s awful drawings of the city map. It would take almost an hour to make it to the university from where they stood. This pissed him off. Haruka was in some kind of danger and an hour was just too long. “Isn’t there another way? We don’t have to skirt around town—”

“Yes, we _do_.” Rin scratched his head again in frustration. “Haru’s in trouble, I know, but we have to stay alive _in order_ to save him. The main roads are full of wrecked cars with their fucking car alarms and hundreds of infected monsters. We can’t just fight our way through it like some video game! One bite and we’re out. No herbs, no first-aid kits, no nothing. Game over.”

Makoto remained quiet and stared down on the floor in shame. When he heard Rin sigh as his own form of apology, he looked up again and observed the diagrams. He tried to remember the route they would take.

"I wonder how's Nagisa and Rei doing," Makoto said, watching Rin pull his maroon hair into a small ponytail.

"The nerd's probably dead."

"Don't say things like that!"

Several minutes of offensive jokes later, Rin was ready to go. Makoto felt that his backpack was a little heavier than before when he carried it. Rin tightened the strings of his rugged Red Wing boots before saying, “Are we ready to go or what?”

“Let’s go.”

The alley where Makoto came from was empty when they went back to it, the infected that had cornered him gone. To the right was the main road, and to the left was another series of narrow alleys and filthy dumpsters. There weren’t any source of lights in the alleys, but they had flashlights now to help them see. Makoto let Rin go ahead as he fearfully followed him, staying as close to the young man as possible. When he heard someone walking and coughing from behind them, he urged Rin to walk faster.

A chill passed through the alleyways and Makoto could feel it against his cheek. It was cold but he didn’t feel it through his bones. Rin had found a bunch of thick shoreline jackets and weighted-knuckled gloves in the store. Aside from protecting them from the cold, it would also make it hard for the infected to bite them.

There hadn’t been a single flesh-eater for the first several minutes, which made Makoto highly paranoid. The last time it was quiet like that, he was almost bitten by a crawler type.

“We should hurry,” Makoto suggested, noting Rin’s slow pace.

“Why don’t you walk ahead then? I’m scared as shit here!” Rin whispered, although he intended to shout. He didn’t stop walking, monkey wrench ready for swinging.

“N-No way, it’s scary!”

“Exactly, so we need to be careful and—”

Rin’s abrupt stop made the bigger man jump in surprise.

“W-What’s wrong?”

“Shhh,” Rin hushed, pushing his index finger against his lips.

Someone was crying. Makoto kept quiet. Seconds after, a noise was heard, a soft weeping noise. It was coming from one of the backdoors up ahead. Makoto froze, bat in hand, trying to discern what the maker of the sound was.

“It sounds like… a little girl,” the taller of the two said. Maybe she was still alive?

“Should we check it out?” Rin asked softly and looked at Makoto, who was terrified as hell. There was an expression of kindness behind his fear. Makoto was the kind to save people, even if they were complete strangers. And even if they were in a middle of an apocalypse.

Makoto nodded his head, eyes focused to where the sound was coming from. It wasn’t the usual beastly moaning he had been hearing. This time, Makoto let himself walk ahead. The darkness of the narrow lane slowly consumed him as he got closer to the gray door. He stopped in front of it and raised his bat.

Curling his fingers on the knob, Makoto slowly turned it and opened the door, making a soft creaking noise.

The room had no light on. The weeping continued.

“Is anybody here? We’re not going to hurt you,” Makoto said in his usual gentle voice, silently treading forward one step at a time. Rin was behind him as backup when he clicked his flashlight on.

The light allowed them to see the back of a young woman kneeling, facing a wall.

“Hey, are you alright, can you—”

The head of what they thought was human spun ridiculously fast and faced them, her closed eyes and ripped off cheek and mouth clear in the yellow glow of the flashlight. Makoto’s breath quickened and jumped back, eyes wide. He couldn’t move. The girl growled and hissed hungrily at them, dressed in what looked like a tattered high school uniform. It stood up slowly, then in one second, lurched out of the gloom, her eyes opened suddenly revealing red pupils and bloodshot whites.

“That is _not_ a little girl! Run!”

Rin took off, but not without grabbing Makoto’s sleeve, who stood paralyzed on the ground. Running as fast as they could, Rin looked back and found that the infected woman was still chasing after them at an incredible pace. He ran even faster, pumping his legs with more speed.

“Holy fuck! What _is_ that thing?!” They were athletes, but no matter how much they ran, the creature was still able to catch up to them. “It’s like a fucking demon!”

Having no idea where they were going by that time, they rounded the next junction and found themselves in the main road—

—where a bunch of infected waited. And with all the noise Rin and Makoto had been making, a dozen of rotting heads and disfigured jaws turned to them in chorus.

“Go back!” Makoto shouted as a horde of infected came rushing towards them. They hurried back to the alleyway but the girl that had been chasing them came out of the dark, growling angrily at them.

Rin put on his brakes and immediately looked around. There weren’t any doors or windows they could go through. They were completely cornered. Both enemy sides were less than two meters away when he saw a ladder above them, leading to an apartment building’s fire exit.

“Up! Makoto! Go _up_!”

There was no time for questions. It wasn’t that high that Rin couldn’t reach it so he jumped, grabbing hold on one of the rails. He hurried up as Makoto followed effortlessly, climbing up as fast he could. Just when Makoto thought he was safe by being on the ladder, he felt a weight on his leg.

The demented woman had latched on to his foot.

“Get off!” Makoto yelled, frantically kicking the infected woman off. It was slowly crawling its way up and Makoto shouted in horror, feeling its sharp nails as it climbed on his leg.

Then he heard gunfire. And suddenly the weight was gone.

Surprised green eyes looked up and saw Rin, two shaky hands holding a gun, smoke coming out from its muzzle. Makoto then climbed up the fire escape ladder as Rin helped him up.

His heart was beating so fast he thought it would just burst out of his chest. Makoto tried to regain his composure and regulate his breathing back to normal, knees and palms on the cemented surface. They were on a rooftop of an apartment building now. He figured it would be safer than below.

“Thanks, Rin.” Makoto turned to the other man. Rin seemed to be in a trance, breathing as heavily as him. “…You used it, huh,” Makoto said, referring to the handgun.

“Yeah,” Rin replied breathily, hands still shaking. He slid the gun back to the holster on his right hip. Makoto just laughed at him. “But more importantly, what the _hell_ was that thing?”

“It wasn’t like any other of the others.”

“Aren’t they supposed to be slow and dumb? But that… thing, it’s like it’s possessed.

“So there are different types of infected.” Makoto couldn’t bear to think about any other possibilities. He finally regained the strength to stand up. From their viewpoint, they could see Haruka’s university blocks away. They were still rather far from the looks of it.

“That was close,” Rin said, standing up and dusting off the dirt on his pants.

Evaluating their surroundings, Makoto found an entrance to the building. They needed to hurry and get down. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a door.

They went inside, carefully checking every edge and every corner before proceeding. It was dark since the power was out so Rin went ahead and lit up his torch. They went downstairs until they saw a hallway of doors, leading to the apartment rooms.

“We’re on the right side of town,” Rin said as they walked downstairs to get back on ground level. “If we go out by the back door and stealth our way through, we’ll be in the school vicinity in no time.”

Makoto’s lips curled. He gripped his weapon tighter. “Haru …”

Sensing the worry in his voice, Rin patted his broad shoulders. “He’ll be fine, okay? ”

Normally in games, survivors would check every single room in an apartment building, but Rin didn’t want to take any chances and moved quickly across the halls, passing through broken doors and bloody carpets. Makoto could hear groans from behind each closed door, and he shut his eyes, trying to ignore it.

It was fortunate enough that there weren’t any active infected blocking the exit, as most of them had probably gone out to the city. Rin eagerly pushed the back door open when they found it and found themselves outside.

“Alright, let’s try not to startle any infected high schoolers this time.”

They stepped out into the cold again as the smell of rotting flesh filled their nostrils, walking silently across the damp cement, edging around every corner, making sure there weren’t any welcoming committees of infected people.

As they quietly scurried within the alleys, Makoto asked in a low voice, “Rin, do you think… whatever happened here, reached Iwatobi?” He felt slightly apologetic when Rin didn’t respond instantly. Maybe he didn’t want to talk about it.

The chances that the virus had already reached that far wasn’t that all impossible, in fact, based on what Makoto had witnessed, how fast Tokyo fell into a world of cannibals and ruin, there was a high chance that the virus had reached the countrysides. And it made him restless that he was unable to know what had happened to the other cities in Japan, or to the other parts of the world for that matter. There wasn’t any television or radio signals, his phone could barely receive signal, the internet seemed non-existent…

“The news,” Rin spoke just when Makoto thought he wouldn’t let out a single word. “The news said it started here in Tokyo. Weeks ago, even.”

“Weeks?” Makoto asked in surprise, trying to stop himself from speaking too loud. The alleys emphasized their voices, and he had to whisper so as to not let the infected hear. “You mean this has been going on for _weeks_?”

“I don't know the whole story. It started out as a flu. They tried to keep it hidden from the public. Says it’s some other form of rabies. There was a theory that this whole damn thing started when a patient turned in one of the hospitals.”

Just as Rin mentioned the hospital, Makoto caught the sight of a tall edifice amongst the other skyscrapers with the blinking neons of ‘Tokyo International Medical Center’. Could Rin be talking about that hospital?

“I couldn’t contact Gou,” Rin said in his sullen, low voice. Makoto walked behind him so he couldn’t see the other man’s expression, and even if he could, Makoto wouldn’t be able to bear seeing Rin’s face. “Or my mom. It might just a signal issue here, seeing that the city’s broken down.”

“I can’t contact my family either. I wish… there was some way to assure me they’re fine. Like a radio telling me places that are still safe… or anything… or…”

Makoto had to stop, feeling his throat dry and his eyes sting. He never was an optimistic person. He wished he could erase all worst case scenarios playing over and over in his head, but he was worried. That was his job. It was always his job to worry. He didn’t know it was such a disadvantage.

“Hey, don’t cry. You sound just like that infected high school girl.” Rin halted his steps to pat Makoto’s higher shoulders with his gloved hands. “We still need to get Haru, yeah? I’m sure Gou, mom, your siblings, your parents… Even Nagisa and Rei. I’m sure they’re fine in Iwatobi. They’re…”

It was Rin’s turn to stop talking, wishing that his words were fact and not just some hopeful make-believe to calm Makoto down—to calm _himself_ down. He wanted to tell Makoto, “Just don’t think about it.” But he knew himself that it was impossible, so they just kept on walking without saying anymore.

It wasn’t long before they reached some stairs leading a few levels down from the ground. The familiar sound of groaning alerted them just as they reached a single underpass leading to the other side of the boulevard. It was the only way without having to take the main road. Makoto couldn’t see the end of the tunnel. It was dark and cold, something Makoto never really liked. Ghosts shouldn’t be on Makoto’s list of problems, seeing that he was being haunted by the living dead, and not the actual _dead_.

Rin went first, flashing his torch ahead of him. The passageway was narrow and damp, and Makoto could hear the echoes of water dripping and the resonating sounds of their footsteps. There was groaning and hissing, but it was hard to confirm where it was coming from.

Rin let out a surprised shout when a crawling one grabbed him by the leg and was about to bite him when Makoto slammed the end of his bat down, smashing the infected’s head into bits.

“Jesus, thanks.” Rin had to catch his breath. “ Perks of always going in first.”

Makoto looked down. “Sorry.”

“Sorry to me, or sorry to this guy?” Rin still managed to joke, looking subsequently to the headless infected.

The one with tired green eyes smiled repentantly. “Both.”

Leaving the crawling type to decay, both men proceeded to hike along the dark passageway that seemed never-ending.

They knew they were screwed the minute they reached the end of the tunnel.

“…Makoto, don’t… _move_.”

How could Makoto even move at that point? As soon as they got out of the underpass, there was nothing that greeted them but hundreds of infected, dragging their mindless selves aimlessly on the streets. The upturned cars and debris mixed in with lifeless bodies, deformed and mutilated from being eaten. This wasn’t just a single walker, it wasn’t two, it wasn’t a dozen—it was a _hundred_. It seemed like quarter of the city’s population. And they were with them, with nothing but a bat and a monkey wrench.

Makoto knew Rin was coming up with a plan. The infected haven’t detected them yet, since they still fairly kept their distance from the crowd of the undead. His heart was beating so fast he could hear it. Makoto looked around to assess his surroundings. He could see the university building up ahead.

“Walk quietly. Stay within the sidewalks.”

It was an entire choir of groans and coughing that made it easier for them to evade them. The noise helped stifle their footsteps as they make their way around the mob. Makoto couldn’t stop shaking and his breathing was getting too loud.

“Makoto, calm down, damn it,” Rin whispered angrily at him.

But he couldn’t. Makoto gripped his bat tighter to lessen the trembling in his hands. He had never seen so much infected. Just one was enough to make him vomit. But hundreds? He could feel himself about to pass out. He couldn’t find the courage to tell Rin to hurry up, finding it remarkably hard to speak all of a sudden, afraid that one word would startle the walking mass of blood and contaminated flesh.

But it wasn’t his voice or their footsteps that startled the horde.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

“Car alarm?!” Rin spun to the other direction, noting a car was bumped by an infected.

They didn’t need to exchange words to make a run for it. Frantically, they ran passed all the wrecked cars and heaps of wood and broken furniture and scattered bricks. A swarm of infected chased after them, suddenly forgetting the beeping coming from the car. The creatures were slow, but Rin and Makoto still ran as fast they could.

“Go down!” Rin shouted in hasty breaths before he slid under a hastily assembled blockade made of construction materials. Makoto quickly followed and rolled into a crouch before sliding under.

Makoto didn’t want to look back. He didn’t know how many of the undead was chasing them. It could be around fifty, or hundreds, he didn’t know. But he was sure that he needed to run. The barricade might’ve helped, but he knew it wasn’t the last of them.

They had to turn right to avoid another horde that was several meters ahead of them. Rin clicked his tongue. Turning right would lead them to another road chockfull of infected. There were barricades all over the openings, made from basically anything like road signs and grand pianos probably looted away from apartments.

“Where do we go?!” Makoto shouted, running alongside Rin, who was desperately ransacking his memory for the city’s layout.

“Climb that barricade! We need to get a ride!”

The university was close, but the remaining area surrounding it was full of infected. It was impossible to run for it without getting caught by at least one biter. Jumping from the top of the barricade, they reached another end of the road, leading up to an intersection. Tokyo streets were complicated, Makoto thought. They broke into another run.

Rin pushed his own footbrakes, almost tripping as he did so. The other slowed into a jog before scanning the place. The horde was gone, at least for now. There were four of those things staggering slowly towards them. Two on the left and about six from behind.

“Rin, over there!” Makoto yelled out, pointing at an abandoned silver Honda. He felt a tinge of hope. It was the only vehicle that looked operable. He just wished there were keys…

But they had to take that chance. They looked at each other before running towards the car. Everything was a blur—the surroundings, the fog, the pavements. Before they knew it, a newly assembled crowd of the living dead was tailing them. It was annoying how they could be quick and slow at the same time. Rin had to stop himself from firing his gun. He couldn’t afford to waste any more rounds.

Rin crashed his own body against the car doors, opening it in panic as he saw Makoto running around to the passenger’s side.

Immediately they closed the doors.

“Keys… keys… keys…!” Rin chanted hysterically when he realized with profound horror that there weren’t any keys in the ignition.

Makoto jumped when an infected banged on his window. “Rin!”

“I know! Damn it, go find the keys!”

There were a bunch of flesh-eaters hammering from outside the car. Makoto scrambled for the glove box, finding nothing but junk. He felt this spark of optimism when he felt something beneath his boots.

“Got it!”

Hurriedly, Rin pushed the key into the ignition as soon as Makoto threw it at him. The headlights went on and they could see the creatures clearly. “Alright! Fasten your seatbelts!”

Makoto looked to his right in what seemed like concern. “Wait, do you even know how to drive?”

Rin’s silence and the fact that they went in reverse instead of forward was enough to answer Makoto’s question.

“You can’t drive?!”

The man in the driver’s seat pushed the accelerator pedal once again, only to go reverse for the second time, hitting a bunch of walkers behind them.

“Shut up! It’s an automatic! This one’s gonna be easy as—”

With a loud screech, the car accelerated forward a little too quickly as soon as Rin adjusted the clutch. The streets and the infected that resided in it were soon immersed in shadows. Rin spun the wheel thoroughly to the right, then to the left, making the car swing in every direction. About another round of fumbling for the right way to steer, Rin was finally able to let the car run smoothly. Makoto sighed heavily in relief. He thought it would be really pathetic to die in a car crash. Especially in their situation.

There weren’t any more growls coming from the creatures. All that was left was just heavy breathing and relief that they managed to escape death. Makoto had to throw his head against the headrest, as he took out a bottle of water from his backpack.

“So, you can’t actually drive?” Makoto asked, offering a bottle to Rin. He refused it.

“It’s not my first time, okay? I took a driving test.”

“Did you pass?”

“…No.” Rin looked at the car’s transmission and saw the letter for reverse was ahead of the other letters. “But that’s not the point! Why would they put the reverse as the first letter anyway?!”

The other man just laughed and said no more, knowing Rin didn’t like to be embarrassed. They were tired and neither of them spoke. Rin already knew the way to the school, dodging the dead wanderers from the streets as much as he could. The car was low on fuel, but it was enough for them to reach the university. They could always drive by a gas station if worse comes to worst. A junction was up ahead. He could see the university’s tall structure—

—when an infected lunged out from the back seat. Makoto shouted in surprise and the creature that had been there all this time tried to clasp onto Rin’s shoulders with its decaying hands.

“Shit!” Rin screamed as he swerved the car all the way to the left by accident.

They were off-guard, so they weren't holding a weapon. Makoto tried to hit the creature with his elbow several times, but the flesh-eater with its putrid breath was still not letting go of Rin. The car was fishtailing when Rin hit the gas and turned the wheel frantically, trying his best to take control of the vehicle as he felt icy fingers claw through his shoulders.

“Get off!” The drooling corpse fell back to the back seat when Makoto finally took it out with a strong elbow attack to the head.

Rin was about to check if the dead thing was really dead when he heard Makoto shout, “Rin! Look out!”

When Rin looked ahead, he knew they were going to crash. The car jumped the curb as Rin lost control, sliding sideways towards an abandoned tank trunk blocking the road. Makoto realized early they were going to hit a tanker. Out of all the things they could crash into, it just _had_ to be a tanker.

The sound of opening doors was nothing compared to the screeching of the Honda. Rin jumped from the driver’s seat to the ground, rolling a few times before he stopped.

_Boom!_

Rin had to cover his ears as an intense pressure of heat and sound resonated through his ears and surroundings. He watched the environment burn into flames, the dim streets lighting up with gas and fire. Rin stood up slowly as he let a brief moment of clattering debris pass. He stumbled, searching for some sign that Makoto was alive.

“Makoto!” He called out within the inferno of dead bodies and flames. It was impossible to see anything. Everywhere he turned there was burning destruction and flickers of fire. He felt a sharp pain travel through his arms, but despite it still shouted, “Makoto—!”

“Rin!”

It was Makoto’s voice. Thank god.

“Where are you?!” Rin shouted aimlessly, not sure where Makoto was. He ran towards a burning obstruction of the tanker and other wreckage and saw a tall figure behind it. “Makoto!”

“Are you okay?” Makoto asked from the other side. They could barely see each other from all the rubble and smoke and fire.

“Yeah,” Rin breathed out. They were stuck on the opposite sides of the firestorm and there was no way for them to meet. They need to travel separately from there on. Rin hesitated, feeling the gun on his holster. “Look! The university's just behind you! I’ll meet you there!” He shouted. He couldn’t see the other man anymore. ““Remember—Just run! It doesn’t matter where, just run. Don’t give up! Find Haru, you got that?! Don’t be afraid to kill, whether it’s me or anybody. I’ll meet you in school! I want you in one piece _and_ with Haru the next time I see you! Okay? Don’t—”

Another series of rubble exploded from afar. It was on Rin’s side.

“Rin?” Makoto shouted. The fiery wreckage muffled his shouts. “Rin!”

He could feel tears coming out from his eyes again. Whether it was the smoke or his growing worry towards Rin, he didn't care. The smoke was hurting his eyes and he could barely see. But he knew it wasn’t the time to cry. Rin could make it. He was strong—stronger than him. If there was anyone who was at the risk of dying, it was himself. His grip on the bat tightened. His backpack was eaten by the blast and he had nothing but a baseball bat. _Rin will be alright_ , he kept telling to himself.

Makoto took a deep breath before noticing a group of infected lurching towards him. The explosion probably attracted a lot of them. It was his chance to hurry to the university without encountering any hordes. He should run for it while the burning wreckage distracted the infected.

And so, Makoto, with determined green eyes, ran to the school.

To Haruka. 

_Alone_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is very Resident Evil 2-esque and quite action packed too wow. I'm quite sick right now but I was able to write still.  
> So this turned to a Makoto-Rin friendship real quick, hope nobody minds, we're still in the beginning after all.
> 
> Thanks for the comments and everything! And thank you for reading! (*´∀`*)


	3. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto continues to search for Haruka.

From the blazing remains of the roads, Makoto escaped the heat by running to a deserted lane littered with broken glass and smoldering rubble, ready to bash anything that got in his way. The dimly lit street was bedecked with the very common sight of decomposing human bodies, most of which looking very _in_ human. The aching young man, sprinting with a slight limp, ran past dead bodies of students—a cruel testament that perhaps there weren’t too many who had survived in the vicinity. It was a commercial street; shops and inexpensive restaurants lining up both sides, parallel to each other. Makoto hid in an alley between a botique and an internet cafe, watching a bunch of slow infected marching lifelessly towards the firestorm, possibly drawn by the explosion.

Makoto had difficulty suppressing his coughs. He didn’t want to make any noise. The last thing he wanted was a horde going after him. He had inhaled too much smoke and the indefinite ringing in his ears still lingered. He couldn’t get rid of it. It felt as if his ear drums were going to burst. Aside from that, he felt the most awful burning sensation on his right arm. Luckily enough, a second-degree burn was the worst injury he got. It hurt like hell. But Makoto was already relieved he didn’t lose a limb or two. He sucked in a breath before taking another look at his wound, cringing a bit when he saw his skin peeling off along with some heavy bleeding. It wasn’t as disgusting as the deterioration of the infected, but it still made the poor boy feel sick. The sleeve that was supposed to shield him from the cold burned midway, leaving his open wound exposed. He could’ve fainted then and there. It was hard to believe that the ghastly scarring was his. The pain on his burns overpowered his other injuries, and he was too frightened to even check the small cuts and burns on his face.

“…hurts…” Makoto breathed out, gritting his teeth and finding it hard to move his scalded right arm. Leaving an open wound fresh for bacteria to get into wasn’t such a good thought, especially when an unknown and constantly mutating virus was on the loose. Cautiously Makoto checked whether there were lurking infected before breaking into a clothes shop.

The glass that was supposed to cover the displayed mannequins were already smashed into bits, making it easier for him to get inside without breaking any doors or smashing any windows. He grabbed the first thing he could find; a cotton cream-colored cardigan, and then quickly bandaged his burned wrists up to his elbow. Makoto would’ve wrapped it more gently if he wasn’t in a hurry. The pain was unreasonably excruciating, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut and suck in breaths through his gritted teeth.

The sweat that trickled down stung his cuts, making him aware on the lesions on his cheek. But he had no time to worry about himself. He got out of the abandoned store. The modern architecture of the school compound could be seen from where Makoto was standing. It was just straight ahead. A fifteen minute walk to be exact. It would’ve been the best option if it weren’t for the horde of dead college majors blocking every corner. And Makoto realized that nothing was ever easy as long as he ventured further into the apocalypse. Peeking from where he was hiding, Makoto knew there were only two options; death by fire or death by getting eaten alive. Neither options were any good. He had to take the long route. The idea of circling around to reach the university wasn’t very appealing, but he had no other choice. If Rin was with him, he would suggest combing through alleys and buildings to avoid encountering large groups of infected. With that in mind, Makoto looked away from the street and disappeared into the alleyways.

The breezes that would occasionally pass by was long gone, the heat from the fire subjugating the supposedly cold weather. The darkness clouded his vision and his heart thumped faster with every echoing step, scared that an infected would suddenly plunge out from the darkness. He had no gear except for the bat in his hands. His phone—the only item that could connect him to Haruka—was devoured by the fire, leaving him with no other information besides the fact that Haruka was inside the university.

It wasn’t long before the waves of smoke and heated air vanished, successfully getting out of the vicinity of the explosion. It always seemed like the shortest route was always blocked—either by hordes of cannibalistic creatures or barricades constructed by scared citizens. Makoto had ran into a few infected, but he just dashed right pass them. They were slow. And Makoto didn’t want to bash any more heads. Because Rin told him to run, he did just that. Killing any more infected would make him throw up, or worse, faint. And fainting in the middle of the apocalypse was definitely not a good idea.

Makoto was lucky enough to have reached the school grounds without bashing any heads. The infected that wandered in the area were hungry but slow, and the adrenaline caused by Rin’s driving and the outburst made him quick enough to dodge them whenever they attack.

“I made it…” Makoto breathed out in disbelief. Just as what Rin had said, he was the type to die in these kinds of apocalyptic situations. He wouldn’t let himself be killed so easily, not until he had ensured Haruka’s safety.

The university had several entrances, and he came through a small gate on the west side of the campus and hid immediately behind dense bushes. It was certain that the main gates would be crawling with the infected. As expected the wide open gardens of the campus trickled with the undead, wandering slowly in random directions.

Makoto was so focused on counting the infected he had to evade that he didn’t see the woman attack until it was too late. A groaning infected woman, her skin shredded and face completely torn by what seemed like claws, reached out from behind Makoto. Regretting that he had yelled in surprise, he stumbled forward, the woman clutching on his back with its mangy claws for a hand. Makoto stood up quickly despite the creature on his back and pushed it away with brute strength before it could bite onto his neck. He bashed the woman’s head immediately after gaining some balance, thick streams of blood gushing from its shattered skull.

“…urghh…!” Makoto quickly covered his mouth and dropped to the ground. He let out whatever was dying to rise up from his stomach. He couldn’t move. It was just too hard to accept it. How many had he killed? He stared at the large lump of flesh beside him. Though it was just going to make him feel sick again, Makoto stared at the woman, and realized she was probably a tad bit older than him, that maybe it was her last year in college, that maybe she had a loving family. Makoto gave up on getting used to it, but the reasonable voice inside his head told him not to. He stared at the body again. Because he felt he had to look at it and understand that they weren’t just human anymore.

The moaning up ahead finally snapped him out of his remorse. Four infected men were approaching him, lured by the noise he made. It was motivation enough for Makoto to wipe the side of his mouth and stand on two legs that he could barely feel. He ran to the building with the highest possible chance of Haruka being there, dodging the extending arms of the undead.

It didn’t take a minute for Makoto to realize that the university was not a safe place. It definitely would not count as a place for refuge. He came in through a window only to find a lobby of infected students walking about. Makoto couldn’t move for a moment, trying to control his breathing. He covered his mouth and nose with one hand. The air reeked of garbage and blood and rotting flesh. Makoto turned his frightened gaze toward the three different staircases leading to three different areas. Shouting Haruka’s name would be a death wish. He walked extra carefully towards the first stairwell, hiding behind furniture and pillars from time to time, balls of his feet first, arms bent and ready to swing. It would be a long time before he could find Haruka in a large six-storey building.

* * *

It was already nightfall when Haruka awoke to the sound of screaming.

The minute his eyes opened, Haruka jolted up alarmed and frightened, only to find himself confined in a cramped space and unable to get out. Every frantic breath coming out from his mouth—he could hear it. And it took him about a second to notice that he was already standing. Three lines of light flashed across his face.

Was he inside a locker?

Haruka tried to push the door open with his shoulders, ramming the metal over and over again but to no avail. It was locked on the outside. He rested his back on the wall behind him, squirming against the space not even big enough to fit an average person. How long was he even in there? The inside of the locker was humid and Haruka could feel his forehead and back completely damp with sweat.

“No! No! Let go!”

The screaming came from outside and Haruka quickly peeked through the narrow cracks of the locker. With his clothes painted with red, a man was tying up a woman. It was a terrifying sight. And soon Haruka realized it wasn’t paint, and that it was blood that had soaked the man’s clothes.

“Shut up! _Shut up_!”

The girl that the mysterious man had referred to was then slapped in the face. She was tied up, chains around her wrists and was beginning to be dragged along across the room. It was dark and Haruka couldn’t see, but it seemed like that the room he was in was the locker room showers. It pained him that he couldn’t help the girl. She kept screaming until Haruka noticed she stopped. The man gagged her. And as much as he tried to open the door, it appeared to be nailed down securely.

Haruka changed in all angles but the two was out of his sight. He could still hear the muffled cries of help from the girl while the man shouted “shut up” repeatedly like a mad man. He was out of his mind.

The one locked up tried again to bust down the door until his shoulders felt sore. He stopped midway when he heard a third voice from afar.

“Guuurghh…Uggrrhh…!”

The woman was still screaming and the man was still hysterical. So there was another person. It sounded more than growling. And Haruka deduced that maybe it wasn’t a person. It was one of those _things_. He couldn’t see anything by then. The screaming worsened as seconds had gone by, and even with a gag she yelled as far as her lungs could go. Haruka grew nervous. What was he doing to her? Just as the screams and sobs grew louder, so did the growling, and somehow Haruka didn’t want to know what would happen next.

Haruka closed his eyes. The screams were terrifying. Then he heard something being ripped apart, like a sickening squelching sound, along with the growling and the sobbing and then eventually... the screams were gone. Haruka stopped breathing until he heard the man speak.

“I’m sorry, baby, oh my god, I’m sorry, I know you’re still hungry. There’s still one in the lockers, okay? Just stay there, sweetie. I’ll get him now.”

He heard footsteps getting closer and closer, and all Haruka could think about was how he was in _deep shit_. Haruka fumbled for anything to hold so the door stay closed. Nothing prepared him when the metal door flew open and a man in blood-soaked uniform appeared. Haruka reacted by instinct and before the man could say anything, he pushed the madman to the ground and ran.

“You fucking—!”

His eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room now. Then, with a battle cry, the insane man jumped at him like a wild animal, hitting his back with such impact that Haruka slipped on the wet tiled floor. He felt him clutch a handful of his hair and forced him to stand.

“Sneaky one aren’t ya?”

When he fell, Haruka’s joints received all the damage and he could barely pull the hands grabbing his hair. “Let go!” He shouted and thrashed about but the man held his locks of hair firmly as he steered him towards the growling sound. “Let go of me!” He scrambled for anything to hold on and ended up grasping the piping on the wall.

“Hey!” his captor shouted and forcefully hauled Haruka by the wrists, snapping the pipes off each other. Water spewed everywhere, soaking both of them to the bone.

The man released him and Haruka dropped on the ground. He froze. The growling was right in front of him, but he kept his head down. Then slowly he raised his head and was shocked to see a mutilated young woman, opening her dislocated skinless jaw, aware that she was about to feast.

She might have been beautiful once. Even with the shredded flesh and misty white pupils, Haruka could tell she was beautiful before. And that she was the madman’s girlfriend. The other girl that had been alive just minutes ago was sprawled right next to the cannibal and Haruka knew that the creature had been stuffing her flesh and brain matter into its mouth. The shower room that was supposed to be filled with water was filled with thick masks of blood instead.

“Here you go, babe. This is the last one for tonight, okay?”

 _Move_. He kept telling himself. _Move!_ Haruka couldn’t even find the energy to scream. He just stared at the decaying creature in front of him. But the moment the woman decided to finally have a bite of him, Haruka jumped back and kicked the woman in the face, leaving a nasty hole in the middle of her head.

“What the hell did you do?!” the man shouted at him as Haruka quickly stood up, away from the couple. The madman fell to his knees and held the woman’s body as if it was still normal. The dead body twitched even though her head was nothing but an unrecognizable chunk of meat.

The shouts of horror soon became sobs as the man held the lifeless body in his arms, crying into her tattered chest, mumbling her name again and again, “Mitsuki… Mitsuki…”

Haruka just treaded slowly away, his blue eyes not leaving the crying man. “I’m sorry…” he said in heaving breaths. He had no idea what to feel, if he should feel guilty or relieved or repentant. But he knew that he needed to get out of there.

“She was just hungry… she was just… she didn’t know…” The man no longer spoke after that and just choked and sobbed against his lover’s decaying body. Without any more hesitation, Haruka dashed out of the showers, leaving the demented lovers behind.

The moment Haruka felt safe was when he locked himself up in an empty classroom. No cannibals, no nutcases, just empty chairs. He felt the need to vomit, the sickening smell of blood was stuck on his clothes. It seemed like the puddle he had slipped on was a pool of blood. Everything was just so _wrong._ By the time Haruka stopped, he was panting, drenched with blood and water.

But regardless of what had happened, the first thing that came into mind was Makoto. He reached out for the phone in his pockets, luckily with a one bar of battery left, and called Makoto.

But it didn’t ring.

“No…” Haruka murmured, redialing and then putting it against his ear. There was no response. “No, no, no…” He chanted and redialed three more times, and soon accepted the fact that he couldn’t contact Makoto anymore.

He let the phone drop from his gradually numbing hands. It was useless now. And Haruka just sat there, gazing at nothing but the dark empty room. Makoto was still out there. He had to look for him. It was a different world now, trickling with psychos and cannibals. He couldn’t imagine how scared Makoto would be. Haruka pressed his face against his palms, unable to resist the urge to cry. His legs felt numb, but Haruka still stood up to look out from the windows.

It looked like hell down there. The gardens outside were occupied by the undead. Haruka closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Knowing Makoto, he would probably rush over to where he was, even though it was clearly a suicide mission in order to do so. That was Makoto. And that would mean Makoto was in the university. He had no time to waste. Marching over to the platform, he kicked a leg out of a wooden chair. It hurt his feet a bit but he didn’t have the luxury to care. If he was going out, he needed some sort of weapon. He wasn’t going to stop until he knew whether Makoto was still alive or not.

Haruka opened the door slowly, then stuck his head cautiously out the door, checking if there were flesh-eaters in the corridor. He stepped out, hands clutching the dull side of the chair leg. To the left was the showers, so he headed to the opposite wing. Having played games and watched movies regarding the apocalypse, Haruka kept in mind that destroying the brain or a headshot would kill the reanimated dead instantly.

The first staircase leading down was empty and there seemed to be no obvious groaning from below. The next flight of stairs were also clear. It was an ominous silence, but Haruka was thankful he didn’t have to bash any heads with a wooden chair leg.

He was on the second floor when he finally heard the mindless moaning, a little less intense than the woman before. He took two deep breaths to force the fear away. A triad of the once human creatures, two women and one man, blocked the only way down to the ground floor, staggering and hungrily moaning. But Haruka was too tired, and he didn’t want to waste energy to decapitate those who weren’t much of a threat. So he just avoided them, running nimbly through the cannibalistic obstacles. Thankfully, the blood that had soaked his clothes removed him as a potential snack.

He soon reached the ground floor lobby, infested with the same kinds of creatures. It was mere recklessness if he was going to wade through dozens of the undead. Haruka went back up again. There must be another way to get out of the building.

Even with the daily three-mile runs and swim practices, Haruka couldn’t help but feel awfully exhausted that he had to sit down for a while. Firstly, he had not eaten since morning, now regretting for skipping breakfast. He hadn’t eaten anything. Shit hit the fan at around noon when one of his classmates decided to eat his friend. That was the turning point and everyone ran around recklessly instead of coming up with a decent strategy. It was merely bad luck that a crazy guy obsessed with his dead girlfriend decided to knock him unconscious several times before attempting to feed him to the dead girlfriend. Love was such an awful thing sometimes.

He didn’t how long he was unconscious, so he wouldn’t know if Makoto had already reached the university. Haruka grew worried. Because even with Makoto’s athletic build and strength, he still seemed so frail, from his olive brown hair down to the constant fear in his green eyes. And god he wouldn’t be able to bear it if every part of his fragile existence was suddenly gone.

_Thump! Thump! Thump!_

“What’s that?” He mumbled to himself. A loud thumping upstairs rattled and echoed, causing Haruka to look up. There was something happening upstairs. Was it still the crazy guy who tried to kill him? Haruka doubted he was done crying, and based on the state he left him in, the cannibals probably got him by now.

Another sound was heard. This time, it was a loud cracking of wood. Haruka’s initial thoughts were Makoto. Maybe it was the nutcase, maybe it was a horde, but there was also a possibility that it _was_ Makoto and he knew he wouldn’t know anything until he personally checked it out.

Haruka went back to the third floor to reach the noise he had been hearing. That certain part of the corridor was deserted before so when he saw a figure of a tall man at the far end of the hall, hope suddenly lighted up his blue eyes.

“Makoto?” Haruka said, walking slowly towards the shadow. “Makoto, is that you?”

He stopped saying his name the minute he noticed that there was something clearly wrong with the person. And that it wasn’t Makoto. It wasn’t the man earlier, too. That guy was short, but the person across Haruka was tall.

The figure was moving strangely, his body and legs swaying with every step.

Haruka dropped his shoulders. “It’s just one of those things…”

He was about to turn around when he caught the figure suddenly dropping on all fours. Haruka froze. Like some kind of animal, the figure ran on four legs, and it was glaringly fast that Haruka made a run for it.

“Guuuaarrrgggghhh!” The creature hissed and growled at the same time and began to chase Haruka. There wasn’t any time for thinking. He needed to run.

_Runrunrunrunrun—_

Haruka pushed off any other thoughts except on how to run faster because that thing was so damn close he didn’t want to look back. And he didn’t need to when the creature jumped agilely to the ceiling and then dropping in front of him. Haruka had to stop from his sprint, causing him to slide down on the floor. It hissed at him again and the slim light that had found itself across the hall allowed Haruka to see the creature.

It just wasn’t human. It didn’t look like one anymore. From the walking corpses he had seen, they still seemed human. But this one… this one was different. It had no skin and the brain tissues were completely exposed. The place where the eyes were supposed to be were hollow, and instead of hands, it possessed claws. Really sharp ones. But the ragged clothes still clinging to its bleeding bare muscles made Haruka realize that it was once human. And he knew right then and there that he needed to fucking run the hell away.

Another angry hiss and suddenly Haruka found himself trapped on the ground with its claws pushing him down, its jaw opening wide as a stream of what seemed like blood poured over his torso. It was strong and Haruka knew that he wouldn’t be able to push it away, so he did the only thing he could possibly do in that situation, he stabbed its face with the sharp edge of the chair leg and he felt the claws loosened. The creature howled bizarrely in agonizing pain. Standing up clumsily, Haruka ran again.

It didn’t matter where, he just ran, and when he thought he was at a safe distance, the creature decided to be an asshole and chased him by crawling on the ceiling. Haruka reached the end of the hall and turned right where he immediately went inside the first door he could encounter.

The door opened then closed. Haruka jogged backwards, gaze still intently on the door.

“Haru?”

That voice!

“Makoto…!” Haruka turned, heart beating faster. And there stood Makoto, face lit up with the most wonderful smile. He had been needing to see that smile ever since everything turned into hell. Haruka didn’t think twice and ran towards him, throwing himself into his open arms, Makoto almost doing the same.

“I finally found you…” Makoto said with relief, holding the other so tight and so devotedly that he didn’t think he would be able to let go. He was so happy he wanted to cry.

They didn’t care that their clothes were practically covered with blood and chunks of internal organs. Makoto didn’t care that Haruka was brushing against his aching burned arms. He just broke into sobs and Haruka just let him. And as they stood there, feeling safe in an interminable embrace, Haruka suddenly felt sympathy for the madman and his dead lover, coming to a realization that if it was Makoto who turned, maybe he would’ve gone insane and done the same thing.

Without a word, Haruka hesitantly pulled back while the other still held his waist.

Haruka let out a delicate breathy laugh and cupped Makoto’s tragic face, noting the several minor cuts on his skin. “Look at you… you’re hurt,” he said with a voice that was about to cry. And he couldn’t control it. He had to put his arms around his neck again, having the need to feel him once more

Haruka was so lost and relieved in Makoto’s warmth that he had completely forgotten about the four-legged cannibal right outside the door. Much to Makoto’s dismay, Haruka pushed him away frantically and held his shoulders. "Quick, we have to barricade this door.”

“What? Is there a horde of infected out there?” Makoto asked in a worried tone. But he sensed the urgency in the man's tone, so he didn’t ask any more questions and simply carried a large wooden desk single-handedly and placed it against the only door in the room.

“Trust me, you wouldn’t want to find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you don’t understand the walking dead finale ruined me fucking ruined me man plus I just finished dead island and ***(spoiler alert) died at the end when they were about to leave and I need to write something remotely hope-giving while still related to zombies somehow ;w;
> 
> & thanks for the wonderful insights of this story! it really makes me happy people are enjoying this as much as I enjoy writing it~ uwu


	4. Burnout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Haruka finally reunited, locking themselves in a neglected office until it was safe to go outside.

It didn't take them a minute to realize that they barricaded themselves inside an office. Messy desks took up most of the space in the room, along with their clutter and neglected paperwork and rusting lockers on one corner. Thankfully enough, there were a lot of heavy furniture available. Haruka wanted the only exit blocked and Makoto just obeyed and helped him carry the heavy stuff, although he was still clueless of the monster outside. Haruka tried to explain, but he was too freaked out and Makoto opted him not to continue. It didn’t need a lot of explaining. Makoto just knew that whatever was out there wasn’t just an ordinary monster.

When the door was fully fortified with office chairs, desks, potted plants and an empty water dispenser, Makoto crashed down to the floor, breathing heavily and on the verge of passing out.

“Makoto!” Haruka cried out in surprise when he heard the loud thump, dropping whatever he was carrying midway to hurry down and kneel next to the exhausted man. He asked frantically, “What’s wrong? Are you alright?!”

Makoto shook his head as he watched Haruka fuss over him, checking for wounds. “No, I’m just… tired,” he mumbled softly, letting the back of his head rest on the barricade they assembled.

“You’re hurt…” the worried boy whispered, noticing Makoto’s burned arm as the improvised bandage started to fall out of place. Pulling his arm in an attempt to examine further, Haruka apologized when Makoto winced out of pain.

“I don’t think it’s serious,” Makoto said, referring to his first-maybe-second-degree burn. The other just glared at him. Of course it was serious. Haruka could tell even with the dim lighting that the burn wasn’t merely first-degree. "More importantly, you should change your clothes. You’ll get a…”

His words drifted away into the night’s menacing air as Haruka stood up without a word and proceeded to check every single drawer inside the room. There had to be at least one first-aid kit inside that room. Rummaging through drawers and emptying the bags that probably belonged to the university’s faculty, Haruka was fortunate enough to find an antibiotic cream and a clean-looking handkerchief inside a forgotten pink purse. He rushed back to Makoto’s side.

As Haruka began treating his burn with an ointment that was way beyond its expiration date, Makoto noticed the red stains on Haruka’s clothes. “Why are you all wet by the way? Don’t tell me you went for a swim even in this situation.” Makoto joked, but it seemed like a serious question.

“I was locked in the shower rooms. Almost got fed to those things,” Haruka said, carefully rubbing the antibiotic on Makoto’s scalded skin. He seemed calm about it, but honestly he didn’t want to remember. “You’ve seen them, right?” He looked at Makoto’s eyes as he remembered the insane man and his lover, and how he could, strangely enough, sympathize with them.

“I’ve seen them,” Makoto answered, his face painted with repentance. Haruka was almost done wrapping the handkerchief on his arm when Makoto hoisted himself up to sit up properly, resting his back on the barricade of furniture. He looked down. “I… had to kill a lot.”

Haruka found it hard to believe. It just wasn’t in Makoto’s nature, proving much further that the world really was going insane. “You… killed them?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” Makoto breathed out and smiled weakly. He lifted his head up, eyes fixed at incredulous blue ones, and said, “Because I had to find you.”

Without any more words, Haruka sat down on the floor between Makoto’s legs, resting his head on the other man’s shoulder. Makoto just let him, wrapping his left arm over Haruka’s back.

“I won’t let myself get killed knowing you’re out there on your own,” Makoto murmured as his eyes began to involuntarily close. He felt Haruka nestle closer, almost to the point where he could hear his heartbeat. “And I am _so_ relieved you’re alive. And… and…”

Haruka felt his chest tighten. It was obvious that Makoto was tired and in pain, that even letting out a few words was difficult. He felt bad because he knew it was because he spent the entire night looking for him. “Makoto, it’s fine, you can talk later. Just rest.”

It took a minute or two for Makoto to fall asleep, so Haruka took this chance to take a look at his face. There were cuts and scratches on his cheeks, as blood and sweat dripped down from his forehead, implying the great lengths he had gone through just to find him. Caressing his cheek, Haruka mouthed a soft “thank you” before standing up from his comfortable position. He did it quietly so as to not wake the sleeping young man and started searching the office for old clothes that could clean Makoto up. A change of clothes would be nice too.

“This should be good enough,” he muttered silently to himself, holding a white women’s volleyball t-shirt that he had found from the lockers and a medium-sized Hideki Matsui jersey. It took one sniff to prove that they were clean, the smell of detergent still lingering in the fabric.

Haruka undressed and changed quickly, the cold air nipping harshly at his exposed skin. He wasn’t much of a baseball fan, so it was his first time wearing a jersey. He then proceeded to clean Makoto’s face with the other shirt, wiping the blood and dirt off from his neck and arms. Softly, he dabbed the clean cloth against his face next, careful not to rouse him from his sleep that he obviously needed.

While Makoto slept peacefully for the first time that day, Haruka felt his stomach grumble. He was hungry, but he couldn’t find anything else other than an old Meiji chocolate bar. It was better than nothing. He ate it nonetheless, making sure to save half for Makoto, since he knew Makoto liked that certain chocolate. It was still unsafe to go outside, even though Haruka knew there really wouldn’t be a time when it would be safe. Still, it would be wise to venture forth when the sun comes up.

When Makoto woke up, he heard a terrible noise from the other side of the door. Still in pain from his arm wound and about a hundred lesser aches, he felt a lot better than he did an hour before.

Makoto flinched at the sound. Now more alert, he straightened his back and looked around, finally noticing the head of dark tresses resting on his shoulder. Haruka must’ve been tired as well, napping quietly as he took the effort to sit down next to him.

_Thud! Thud!_

Makoto froze. The sound of wood crumbling was getting closer. “Haru! Wake up!” he whispered loudly, shaking Haruka’s shoulders.

“…What?” Haruka asked groggily, rubbing his eyes and still half-asleep.

“There’s something outside.”

Haruka spun and stared at the door. Could it be the same monster that chased him?

Heart racing, Haruka stood up and suggested, “We need to go hide.” Makoto just nodded and let him drag them to safety. If it really was the same undead monster, there was only one thing they could do:

 _Hide_.

They needed to be rabbit in the face of danger. The monster was agile, but it was also blind and seemed like it didn’t really possess a keen sense of smell. From Haruka’s experience, it seemed like it relied heavily on noise, just like the infected.

_Thud! Thud!_

It was close. It might be right outside the barricaded door. Haruka could tell Makoto was scared. He was, too, but not nearly as frightened as the other man. He grabbed him by the hand, careful not to touch his wounded arm, and steered him towards a large locker where cleaning supplies were stored. It wasn’t big enough for the both of them, but there really wasn’t any other hiding place. Haruka pushed Makoto in first, then himself, and closed the door.

“Don’t make a sound,” Haruka said, trying to comfort Makoto, who was breathing heavily by then. They could see outside the locker from the three rectangular holes. He was stuck in a locker again, Haruka thought. They were facing each other so very closely that Haruka wasn’t sure if his heart was racing because of their awkward position or the hungry creature outside. “It reacts to sound so just stay—”

The door that they fortified imploded in one swift second, rain of broken furniture and wood spraying all over the room. Makoto almost screamed out of surprise, but Haruka covered his mouth just in time. He was the one who could see what was happening and not Haruka, his shocked mind looking for something to describe the monster, maybe some kind of predatory animal. But it wasn’t an animal. Makoto knew that the creature was once human. It didn’t look like the majority of the infected. He could tell just by the smell alone that this was a worse kind of the undead.

“ _Gaaaarrgghhh!”_

The creature screeched so loud that made both of them cringe. It walked on all fours, looking for something to eat. The holes in the locker gave Makoto a clear look of its hideous body, and how it was merely six feet away from them. Much of its skin had peeled off, fibrous red muscle tissue the only thing left to show. Its claws looked like its body forced them out, blood dripping from its base up to the tips.

“Hey, Makoto, look at me,” Haruka said in a hushed voice. Hands on both sides of his face, Haruka chanted quietly, “Look at me. Don’t look at it. Just look at me.” Just from his heartbeat, Haruka could tell Makoto was scared as fuck, having to see such a disgusting thing—much more disgusting than the regular infected—for the first time.

Makoto could hear his own heartbeat. And he was sweating like crazy too. He felt like throwing up. He tried to look away from the monster and look at Haruka instead, but he was so disoriented he had no idea what to do. “H-Haru… I…!”

It was a good thing the monster smashed a desk when Makoto spoke, or else it would’ve heard him. The creature then turned his head to their direction, as if he already knew they were inside. Makoto was shaking uncontrollably. The monster marched towards them, raised a strong arm and literally destroyed the lockers next to them, shrieking loudly like a pig getting slaughtered. Makoto couldn't help but gasp in surprise, his trembling body causing the steel lockers to make soft rattling sounds.

“Makoto, stay quiet!” Haruka whispered anxiously, trying not to shout. He needed to distract the shaking Makoto. His breathing was too loud and he needed him as quiet as possible if they wanted to stay undetected.

And so he took their close proximity to his advantage and simply kissed him.

It would have been the perfect time for Haruka to kiss him, except maybe for the fact that there was a flesh-eating monster outside and that they weren’t really in _that_ kind of relationship—maybe not just yet, but they were getting there. At least, that was what Haruka thought. Their relationship was already so intricate that it was hard to label them in a single word.

Makoto caught his kiss, nearly gasping out loud when he felt the Haruka on his lips. He would’ve made a sound, if it weren’t for the other’s lips keeping his mouth closed. The rush of heat went straight to his face and for a split second, he had forgotten about the monster nearly a meter away. He shivered at the touch but his terrified green eyes didn’t close. Haruka noticed this and pulled him even closer, extending a hand to touch the back of Makoto’s head as he opened his mouth to open his—

_Bang!_

Makoto and Haruka jumped at the sudden sound, causing them to pull away. The hunter-like creature screeched louder than the gunshot. Haruka had to turn around as well, which was a little awkward since he had to rub against Makoto’s body. Another gunshot and suddenly dark red liquid came rushing out of the holes made by the gun, spraying the walls and floors with horrible blood and maybe some unidentified slime with it. It all happened so fast that the both of them did nothing but watch as the creature shriek agonizingly in pain.

It was Rin.

Makoto was so relieved to see him. He knew he would survive. Rin shot the monster again. Those were already three rounds spent. It collapsed on the floor on the fourth shot, its squirmings becoming less and less sprightly until it finally stopped moving altogether. Stunned with disbelief, Rin let out a huge sigh before putting his arms down and placing the gun back to his holster.

Makoto wasn’t sure if they should go out, but it didn’t matter since Haruka pushed the locker door open as soon as the creature’s last wails died out.

“Whoa!” Rin jumped, almost reaching for the gun. And he soon realized it was Haruka—alive and safe, but most importantly, _alive_. Makoto came out soon after and Rin couldn’t help but tackling them both into a tight hug, swinging his arms on both of their necks. “You guys are okay! Holy shit!”

“Rin, you made it!” Makoto cried out in happiness. He left out traces and messages on walls so Rin would know where he went. He was glad it helped him somehow.

Rin, who was literally crying, nodded and smiled, breathing heavily as he spoke, “Yeah, you too, huh? And what the hell happen—” He stopped abruptly, noting Haruka and Makoto’s super red faces. He laughed. “Were you that scared? Your faces are all red. What? Did you kiss inside that closet or—”

Haruka looked to his side while Makoto did the same, neither of them commenting. It was then Rin knew he made a terrible joke.

“Shit. Was I right?”

“N-No!” Makoto finally spoke out, face and ears still red in embarrassment. He sheepishly rubbed the side of his neck. “W-We were just… you know, a little mixed-up… from everything. I mean, I thought we were going to die… and—”

“Okay, I get it.” Rin raised both his hands in surrender. He knew they were hiding something. They really didn’t kiss, right? That would be so awkward. Rin wouldn’t really mind them, but having to deal with their awkwardness to each other sounded like a real pain. He needed to change the subject. “A-Anyway! We should get the hell out of here, don’t ya think? The gunshots will probably attract some of the infected. There’s a place I know that would be safe.”

“Y-Yeah, we should get going,” Makoto agreed. He took one last glance at the dead mutated creature before taking a deep breath. “Lead the way.”

Rin was the first to go out the wrecked doorway. Aside from the gun, he had a sturdy-looking microphone stand as a weapon, which he found inside a deserted lounge when he got separated from Makoto.

They made their way out of the building, trying to avoid detection to save time and energy. They reached the end of the hall and cautiously opened the fire exit door Haruka never knew existed, weapon half-raised. The outside was clear.

“So, where are we going?” Makoto asked, mainly because he sensed that Haruka was curious.

“The police department,” Rin stopped his tracks. “I ran into a soldier earlier.”

“From the army?”

“From the countermeasure team,” he corrected. He didn’t even know there was such an organization. “The virus started here. The other parts of the country are safe, but Tokyo is going to get nuked in three days’ time. There’s an evacuation site in the police department. It’s where soldiers are taking civilian survivors. They leave to Nagoya on the last day.”

That was considered good news. At least he knew his family in the countryside was safe. It took a huge weight off Makoto’s shoulders and he felt like he could breathe normally again. He smiled, a cool midnight wind breezing across his face. They had a chance after all.

“But the police department is five kilometers away…” Haruka said. He knew this because he lived near it. The building was near the river and was just across the Japanese Coast Guard's office. It would be suicide to go there. “Why don’t we just escape by ourselves? Get a car and take the expressway?”

“They already quarantined the entire city. No one gets in, no one gets out. I think you’ve forgotten how fast the army is. If we want to escape, we have to do it with the evac team.”

“This is ridiculous,” Haruka uttered under his breath.

Rin frowned at him and shook his head. “It’s our only way out of this hellhole.”

They didn’t have much of a choice. But now that Makoto knew there was a way out, a chance to survive and keep on living, he realized that he wasn’t as scared. He was still a little frightened, sure, but knowing more about the situation made him feel less useless and vulnerable, that despite of the risks, it would be better to try, to make an attempt to _fight_ instead of doing nothing and wait for help to come.

“But I think we should rest first,” Makoto suggested. “We should eat and head to the evac site in the morning. Right, Haru?”

Makoto and Rin turned to him. It could be the bags under his eyes or his uneven breathing or even the stomach grumbles that gave it away. Makoto was spot-on once again. He instantly turned his head away when he accidentally made eye contact, still not forgetting the fact that he kissed him. What annoyed him was that Makoto didn’t seem that all bothered, unlike him, who was fidgeting and uncomfortable up until now.

“Let’s look for a hideout then. One safe to spend the night in.” Rin quickly walked toward another building, gun ready. The cafeteria was a good first try. It only had one floor and a mezzanine and was fairly small. There should only be three or four infected in there.

Except it wasn’t just three—or four—try, maybe, about a _dozen_.

“Shit.” That was all Rin could say. The three of them were still outside, peeking through the large-scale windows of the cafeteria, crouching to stay out of sight and keep noises to a minimum. “I thought this would be our best bet. There’s gotta be food in there.”

“We could always use the door at the back. The one that heads right to the kitchen.” Haruka knew his way around that area. From their point of view, it seemed like the door to the kitchen was locked so there was a chance that the infected had not taken over that part yet.

“Let’s go for it.”

Sure enough, the door behind the cafeteria was also locked. The door appeared like it would be possible to break since it was made from wood, but Makoto thought it wasn’t such a good idea to force their way through if they planned on staying there overnight. There wasn't a way inside other than the narrow window above the door. Rin bit the bottom of his lip. He had an idea, but he wasn’t sure if Makoto would agree…

“Give me a boost. I’ll open it from the inside.”

It seemed like Haruka was thinking the same thing. And as Rin guessed, Makoto was against it.

“What? Haru, it’s too dangerous! What if there are infected in there?” Makoto objected. His concern for him wasn't a surprise.

Haruka just glared at him. “I’m the only one that can fit in there. Once we’re inside, we’re safe. I just want to get this over with.”

“Take the gun,” Rin offered and handed him his only firearm, smirking. He liked that Haruka was brave and initiative when they needed him to be. “Just in case.”

Even though Makoto was still unhappy about the whole idea, he was the one that gave Haruka the boost up by letting him stand on his crossed palms until he disappeared into the opening. Makoto pursed his lips, reassuring himself that Haruka would be alright.

Haruka stepped out into the dark kitchen, the lights were off and he could barely see anything. He quickly turned to the door to open it but found out in horror that it was sealed with a padlock.

“…Damn it,” Haruka cursed in a hushed voice. He tried to pry it open, pulling it from the door but it was no use. He stopped, breathing deeply. The key had to be in there somewhere, he was sure of it.

“What’s taking him so long?” Makoto was starting to worry. He could feel his heart beating faster out of nervousness. He heard Rin click his tongue.

Rin pressed his cheek against the door, shouting, but not too loudly, “Haru! What’s going on?”

“It’s padlocked. I’ll look for the key," he hard from the other side.

Haruka moved quickly and silently across the dark kitchen, edging around a counter that separated the room into half. It was too dark and he couldn’t even find the light switch. He paused when he stepped on what seemed like a puddle. As he slowly walked further, an awful stench was slowly approaching. Hopefully it was just spoiled food and not one of those awful—

He heard something. His head snapped up, his attention on his surroundings. There was a soft dragging sound—an infected man brushing against the floor, or wall, something. It was impossible to see anything. Haruka’s breath hitched. He assessed his surroundings, trying to discern where the sound was coming from.

A figure of a man was laying on the floor, back against the counter. That much Haruka could recognize. It began to moan—that awful droning sound of slow, rotting death. The carrier had no lower body, nor a complete digestive system, but it was still very eager to eat Haruka. Despite being in a kitchen, the infected must’ve been so very hungry that it started eating its own legs. He chose to ignore it, seeing as the infected couldn’t do much, until he saw something glisten. Haruka took a deep breath. Why must everything be so hard? The mutilated man had the keys, hanging from its shirt’s front pockets. The gun wasn’t really necessary, so Haruka just took a knife from one of the drawers and raised his hand to slash its brains out.

But he couldn’t. He thought it would be easy but he just _couldn’t_.

Hands shaking, he almost dropped the knife. He might have been simply waiting for it to attack him, to give him a lawful reason to kill it, but it didn’t. It was missing half of its body so it just stayed there, guarding the keys like it was his job to do so. But he remembered Makoto and Rin. They were outside waiting for him. Haruka closed his eyes first and breathed in deep, and in a flash, hacked the knife onto its skull, unaware that he was screaming too—a cry of terror. He knew it was deader than shit but he gave one final blow to the head until its brains were oozing out of its skull.

He couldn’t believe it. He just killed a man.

He killed a _monster_ —not a man. At last, he shook his head. He recovered enough of himself to approach the bloody dead remains and swiftly pulled the keys from its shirt. Haruka ran back to the door and unlocked it.

As soon as the door opened, Makoto pulled him in a profound embrace.

“Are you okay?” Makoto asked, still not letting go of the smaller man. “You’re clothes are all dirty again…”

Haruka reddened at the sudden gesture and pushed him away gently. He looked at Rin instead, still unable to look Makoto properly. Giving the gun back to Rin, he said, “There was only one infected. I finished him off.”

Once again, they barricaded the two doors, this time with kitchen appliances. They turned the lights on, revealing the kitchen's overall cleanliness and modern design. Makoto was the first to forage for food, which wasn’t very difficult since it was a kitchen. There was an unopened pack of wheat bread inside the cabinets, a bunch of canned fish and meat, and a refrigerator full of potable water and juice.

Before he could indulge himself, Makoto gave everything he found to Haruka.

“You’re hungry, right? Take the first bite.” Makoto smiled at him. Why was he still acting normally, even after what Haruka did? The young man couldn’t understand. Shouldn’t he be disgusted that his best friend— _male_ best friend—literally just stole his first kiss? He even sat next to him and wouldn’t eat unless Haruka started.

“T-Thanks,” Haruka murmured almost inaudibly. He looked to his side, only to see Rin consuming a can of corned tuna like it was the best meal he had ever eaten. Haruka stared at what Makoto gave him. They were canned mackerel—the kind where a can opener was unnecessary. All it required was a little pulling.

Suddenly, he remembered the chocolate bar he had been saving for Makoto. It seemed a little useless now since they were already stocked up on food that could last for days, but he still wanted to give it to Makoto.

“Here.” Makoto looked up, seeing a standing figure of Haruka, green eyes wide in surprise. “I found this in the office earlier. I ate half, but if you don’t want it, I—”

“Thank you,” Makoto said sweetly with a smile. He looked so happy, Haruka thought. “I’ll eat it later—save the best for last.”

After their satisfying dinner, they made improvised cots using the aprons and uniforms stored inside one of the cabinets. It was better than sleeping on cold tiled ground. Rin and Makoto took off the shoreline jackets they had previously stolen from the hardware store, while Haruka changed his clothes again, and this time into chef’s robes. There weren’t any other clothes inside, so he had to deal with that for now. Sleeping in clothes drenched in blood and carrier fluids wasn’t a very appealing idea after all.

Haruka slept between Rin and Makoto. They decided to sleep close to each other. Rin was the first one to doze off, tired from all the shit he’d been through. Who wouldn’t be tired? At least now they were no longer hungry nor thirsty.

On the other hand, Makoto found it hard to sleep. How could anyone sleep at that point? The world was in total chaos, his body was hurting all over, the smell of death was everywhere, brain-sucking monsters waited outside right outside the doors… It was a disaster. What if they attack him during his sleep? Standing up, Makoto headed over to the sink to soak his burned arm in cold water, washing leftover blood and making sure he was relatively clean. He peered at Haruka, trying to determine if he was already sleeping, and from the looks of it, he probably was. Afterwards, he went back to his makeshift bed and gazed at Haruka’s face.

Makoto decided that Haruka sleeping was him at his most fascinating.

“Can’t sleep?” Haruka asked suddenly, causing Makoto to turn away in reflex. He hoped Haruka hadn’t noticed he had been staring at him.

“Nah,” Makoto answered. “Can you?”

“No.”

Honestly, Makoto wanted to be closer to him, but Haruka didn’t seem like he’d want him to. He had been avoiding him ever since that thing in the locker. Makoto wanted to ask why he did it. But he couldn’t. He knew it was just out of impulse—a rush of adrenaline as they liked to call it. But for some reason, he wanted it to be _more_ than that. And so, Makoto didn’t ask. For a moment, at least, he was scared to know why. He let out a huge sigh before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep, in expectation of the long, long day ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update! I'm in exile on a remote island right now so I have a lot of free time. Very Barakamon-like except, you know, I don't actually do anything other than play video games and eat a lot of shrimp because shrimp is so fucking cheap here. Like, wow, when did this turn into a romantic action story? Thank you for the comments! It makes me very happy ;w;
> 
> I didn't purposely update this just in time for the season premier of The Walking Dead. It's just that I found my old Gamecube in my room (since I'm here in the countryside) and decided to play Resident Evil this afternoon.

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired from [Death Valley by Fall Out Boy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3mHhCc1Jg)


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